San Francisco Bay Area’s Quirky ‘Flintstone House’ Sells for $2.8M

The unofficial San Francisco Bay Area landmark known as the Flintstone House has changed hands for the first time in 20 years. A local buyer closed on the quirky home for $2.8 million this week, brokers confirmed.

The house, which is in Hillsborough, California, about 17 miles south of San Francisco, came onto the market in September 2015 for $4.2 million, and dropped to $3.195 million when it was last listed in July 2016.

The listing entered into contract in May and closed on Tuesday. The final sale price was exactly one-third off from the original ask. The property records don’t yet register the buyer, and the brokers declined to name the person.

“The buyer loves that the house is a piece of art, inside and out,” said Julie Zubiate of Redfin, who was the buyer’s agent. And the buyer “has always loved seeing the house when driving along Interstate Highway 280,” she added.

The seller bought the house for $800,000 in 1996, property records show.

The earth-colored, multiple-domed home, nestled in the hillside overlooking Crystal Springs Reservoir, was designed by Bay Area architect William Nicholson in 1976 to experiment with new building materials and techniques.

By spraying concrete onto wire mesh frames and giant inflated balloons, Nicholson created an exterior that looks as if it were made of giant bubbles and marshmallows, earning the house its other nicknames: the Marshmallow House and the Bubble House.